


Blink and You'll Miss It

by not_whelmed_yet



Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Family Dinners, Fluff, Multi, Polyamory, Reconciliation, every character here is part of this complicated unexplored poly-whatsit relationship, i ship everyone
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-01
Updated: 2017-07-01
Packaged: 2018-11-21 17:34:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11362263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/not_whelmed_yet/pseuds/not_whelmed_yet
Summary: Foggy is invited to a dinner party by Matt (and his mystery roommates). That's it, that's the plot.Was organizing my hard drive and I found this old fic. Was written before Luke Cage came out, so characterization was speculative.





	Blink and You'll Miss It

**Author's Note:**

> Very unedited! I found this and thought someone might get a smile out of it, so I have posted it. I think maybe at one point I'd planned a follow-up chapter where Foggy would be more in the know? Feel free to imagine some happy brunch trips after Matt works up the momentum to explain his complex poly relationship.

The building was about the same age as Matt's old building, and just like Matt's old building, there was no elevator and no air conditioning in the stairwell. It was, in all honesty, a bit grubby, but nothing Foggy hadn't seen before. They'd at least put in those non-slippy things so people didn't break their heads open. It didn't actively smell of body fluids or weed, mostly of dust and bleach. All in all, not too bad.

The note directed him to room 708; another top floor apartment. He wondered if there was rooftop access here too. From behind the door he could hear voices and laughter and some very quiet jazz music. He couldn't have named the band, but he recognized one of Matt's albums from college.

Shit. What was he even doing there? It had been months of radio silence on the Matt Murdock front, ever since they called it quits. And then one morning he gets a postcard inviting him to "come visit" and "mend fences" and the address and time and he's there that very evening. Part of it was that someone had hand written that card and it wasn't Matt, though it had been his signature on the bottom. Blocky handwriting, very crisp and clear. Franklin Nelson wasn't nosy, whatever his mother said, but he was certainly curious. Who'd written the note? For that matter, who was inside besides Matt? Why had he moved? His old phone number hadn't worked in awhile, or else he was screening his calls.

After taking one more minute to gather his nerve and decide if this was all worth it, he knocked. And then waited. The talking got quiet for a moment, then there were footsteps over to the door. It opened on a very tall black man in a green henley and dark jeans. The man smiled. "You're Foggy, right? My name's Luke. Matt heard you coming, he's hiding in the bathroom. But please do come inside."

"Um," Foggy followed into the tiny living area. There was a small table crammed with plates and serving dishes and one tiny tea candle, with a smorgasbord of mismatched folding and wooden chairs gathered around it. Luke scooted some of them so he could pick his way back into the kitchen, where he took back over from a middle-height woman with dark hair and a leather jacket.

"Nelson!" Jessica Jones nodded at him, hefting a bottle of beer in her left hand. "Told you he'd come."

"Jones?" Foggy had worked with Jessica Jones, once, briefly and vaugely unpleasantly. It had been a fucking weird case. "You live with Matt?"

"Yup," she said, drawing out that last p. "He moved in last month. Hey, why don't you very loudly say that you're not going to yell at him if he comes out to talk? I'm missing my best cook here."

"He's not mad, Matt, we all know you're not actually using the bathroom," Luke said under his breath.

Foggy thought about it. "Wait, did he tell you guys-"

"We're part of the need-to-know club, yeah. We knew him Daredevil first, actually. We're all super-powered freaks in here," Jessica said, hopping up to sit on the counter and leering a bit.

"Jess, jeez. Are you trying to scare him off?" Luke shook his head. "Bathroom's around the corner, Matt'll be out in a minute. Won't you, Matt?"

Foggy backed away from the crazy woman to find the aforementioned bathroom door. Around the corner, he found Matt already waiting in the hallway, pretending to stare at his shoes. Matt lifted his head as he approached, smiling tentatively.

"Hey, Foggy. You're here." One of his hands reached out for a moment, then jerked back. He put his hands in his pockets.

Matt didn't look good, but he looked better than Foggy had expected. He was wearing an oversized t-shirt and sweats, clothes Foggy didn't recognize. He must have gone shopping. Matt hated shopping. He was thinner than Foggy remembered, like he'd maybe been sick lately. There was a healing pair or bruises on his wrists that Foggy refused to acknowledge.

Taking in his hesitation, Matt's smile crumbled. "Hey, okay. You don't have to stay for dinner. I just wanted to say a few things."

"It's good to see you safe, Matt," Foggy said belatedly.

"One moment. I've got to do this before I loose my...I'm sorry. I was in a bad place, and I let myself fall into bad habits and in with people I knew were bad for me. I was a shitty friend and I let our friendship fall apart. I know we can't be business partners now and that I'll have to work to earn your trust. But if you want, I want you back in my life and I'm willing to work for it." He ducked his head again. "Okay, that's it. You can go if you want."

Foggy wasn't feeling quite ready go hug it out, but he caught one of Matt's hands and squeezed. "I miss you, Matt. I miss our friendship. You were the one who said we should walk away."

"It would be for the best," Matt said. "But I miss you. And Jessica tells me pushing everyone away is an unhealthy coping tactic." He flashed a brief smile. "Stay for dinner? We can talk after."

"What are we having?" Foggy asked, letting Matt lead him back to the kitchen. He didn't miss the little happy wiggle that accompanied the word 'we'.

"Tomato and ricotta tart, a nice salad, roast chicken, and lemon bars for desert. We have a few more guests coming a little later."

Foggy let himself be seated at the table, while Matt glided into the kitchen. "Who all's that?"

"Malcolm Ducasse, Jessica's work colleague. Danny Rand, a friend of Luke's. And he's bringing Misty, who's his girlfriend. And Misty never goes anywhere without Colleen."

"Not true," Jessica puts in, butting the fridge open with her hip and gathering up an assortment of salad dressings. "When Misty and Danny were planning Colleen's surprise party."

"Fair enough," Matt said. "Oh, and Claire will be here."

"Claire Temple? The nurse who lost her job over your...whole...thing?"

Matt shrugged. "She got another job. Turns out if you're certified and looking for nursing work in New York City, you can get work pretty easily. It's a high demand career."

"And you're talking?"

"Mm, she said she'd come to dinner if Matt talked to you," Luke said. "She's been on his case all week bout it."

Matt got the tart out and brought it over to the table, sitting a seat away from Foggy. Luke brought over the chicken and everything else. Jessica stopped checking her phone and tromped over to the front door just as the knocking started. A crowd of people trooped in. A crowd.

Claire got in first and deposited a bottle of wine on the table on her way to the seat next to Foggy. She gave Luke a wave and a wink, then hit up Foggy for casual small talk. Past her head he could see a pair of women, one with an amazing old-school afro and wearing a leather glove on one hand; the other a long-haired brunette who deposited a katana (he swore to god) in the umbrella bucket by the door. Misty and Colleen, presumably. They were followed by a young man with scruffy blond hair wearing running gear who must have been Danny from the playful slap Misty(?) gave him on his way to sit down. Malcolm was the last one in and the only one anywhere near Luke and Foggy's semi=formal dinner party clothes. He'd brought a grocery bag of pears with him, which he brought to the kitchen himself before seating in the last seat.

Foggy ended up between Claire and Luke, while Matt was sandwiched between Luke and Jessica. They were sitting close enough to bump elbows and shoulders, but they seemed comfortable with it. Conversation drifted from the office politics at Claire's new hospital, to Malcolm's classmates, to vigilante patrols, briefly. The last of these apparently involved everyone at the table, at least tangentially. Malcolm was Jessica's office manager, Claire was their first aid contact. Misty had been on the force and ran Jessica's competition in the PI business with Colleen, but they were apparently collaborating on a case. Danny, Jessica, Luke and Matt were all in the business of going out at night and stopping crime with their fists.

"Though some of us sleep occasionally , unlike Mr. Murdock here," Danny said to that.

"Some of us have jobs, Danny," Matt said. "We can't all sleep till after noon."

"Amen," Misty said. "Could you tape that for me, Matt. I can play it at this idiot when he's trying to convince me not to get out of bed for work in the morning."

"I could just -" Matt froze, then adjusted his sentence. "Yeah sure. I'll do that sometime."

It wasn't until the lemon bars had made their way onto the table, and conversation had shifted to bemoaning the state of national politics that Foggy noticed that Matt hadn't been wearing his glasses the whole dinner. In rapid succession, he then noticed Luke's left hand resting on Matt's knee and the way Jessica had been picking out and describing facial expressions throughout the dinner. Matt looked happy.

It wasn't as if he'd hoped to stumble across Matt begging on a streetcorner, alone and destitute. But it was a shock to see him surrounded by people, apparently all friends he felt as comfortable with as he'd ever felt with Foggy. It was a sudden burst of jealousy, like when his old high school crush had posted her wedding pictures to facebook. Irrational, but there.

Foggy made it to the end of dinner, and when it didn't look like anyone planned to leave any time soon, started making hints about early work days and late nights. Matt took the hint and offered to exchange phone information, explaining that his old phone had been lost in an unfortunate accident. He even gave him the number for the landline in the apartment, because this was apparently the sort of apartment that still had a landline. Foggy promised to text and Matt promised to text back, doing his best and most earnest facial expressions to try and indicate sincerity. Foggy would believe it when he saw it.

He said his goodbyes and walked down with Malcolm, who apparently lived in Danny's building. Foggy wasn't sure if he meant that it was the building Danny lived in or a building Danny owned. Context clues weren't super helpful, but the second option seemed pretty absurd, so he didn't want to ask. Why _Danny_ wasn't heading out to that building was another question, but everyone had seemed pretty settled in the tiny apartment. Very cosy.

It was halfway through the cab ride home that he realized Matt had just introduced his new partners to his old family.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm over on tumblr at [ notwhelmedyet](http://notwhelmedyet.tumblr.com/), but I'm mostly busy having feelings about gay space robots at the moment. Maybe my daredevil inspiration will return someday?


End file.
